Texting parents to let them know how many days of school their child has missed can lead to some small improvements in attendance, but how the message is framed matters. This is according to the findings from an independent evaluation of the BITUP programme, published by the Education Endowment Foundation today.
Developed by the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), BITUP aimed to improve attendance rates by sending personalised text messages to parents and carers at the start of each new term if their child’s attendance dropped below 95% attendance in the previous term. Instead of reporting attendance as percentages, the messages highlighted the number of days a pupil had missed – for example, “Tom missed five days of school last term” rather than “Tom’s attendance was 90%”.
The independent evaluation – led by Verian and jointly-funded by the EEF and Youth Endowment Fund – involved more than 100 secondary schools across England, covering 87,000 parents and carers of around 100,000 pupils in Years 7 to 11. Using schools’ own data, BIT identified pupils with attendance of 95% or below and provided schools with personalised messages and guidance on delivery via existing communication platforms. Schools retained discretion to exclude pupils where absence was due to bereavement, long-term illness, or other personal issues.
Key findings include:
- Parents and carers found “days missed” messaging clearer and more meaningful than percentages.
- There was a small positive impact on attendance for pupils whose parents received the text messages. This was equivalent to an average of 0.21 fewer missed days of school per pupil or 15 extra days of attendance per 100 pupils across the course of the trial (five half terms).
- The programme had a larger impact on pupils eligible for free school meals, female pupils and pupils in Year 8. Although these findings are less secure as they’re based on a smaller group of pupils.
- Some parents reported taking action after receiving messages, such as discussing attendance with their child or monitoring it more closely.
- Parents did not need reminders about the general importance of attendance, but valued specific, personalised information.
- While the overall impact on attendance was small, the costs were low – just over £1 per pupil per year across the treatment group, reducing to an estimated £0.29 for schools to run the programme themselves after initial set-up. The approach could be a useful, low-cost element of a wider attendance strategy, alongside more intensive support that tackles the root causes of absenteeism.
These results build on the EEF’s 2022 evidence review into attendance, which highlighted parental engagement and communication – through personalised letters, emails, and texts – as promising strategies. The BITUP evaluation provides further insight into how small changes in how schools communicate with families could make a difference.
This evaluation comes after the Education Secretary recently announced new government plans and support to help tackle the school attendance crisis (1). Last year, the rate of pupils missing 10% or more of school time was 18.7%. Whilst this was a slight reduction in recent years, this is still far above pre-pandemic levels (10.9 % in 2018/19) (2).
Commenting on the BITUP trial findings, Emily Yeomans, co-CEO of the Education Endowment Foundation, said:
The EEF has also published findings from a further three evaluation reports today.
- Infant Language Link (ILL) uses a standardised screening tool to identify pupils with mild to moderate language needs, aiming to address these through a combination of whole-class teaching strategies and targeted TA-led sessions. An efficacy trial, led by Sheffield Hallam University, found that Year 1 pupils in schools that were using ILL did not make any additional progress compared to control schools. Schools valued the screening tool, which provided information on specific child language needs, and felt it was effective. However, those taking part in the targeted intervention sessions made one month less progress compared to control schools. This result needs to be treated with caution as it’s based on a smaller number of pupils, meaning it’s less secure.
- Thinking, Doing, Talking Science is a pedagogy and CPD programme, co-developed by Science Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, designed to develop cognitively challenging, practical and interactive primary science lessons. This addendum report, led by the University of York, found no evidence of an increase in science attainment for pupils in participating schools either in the year of the trial or using the approach in the following year. However, there was a small positive impact on attitudes to science and enjoyment of the subject for Year 5 pupils, consistent with the main report findings.
- A Teacher Choices trial, based on cognitive science research, tested three approaches to using examples to teach grammar in Year 7 English. The evaluation, led by NFER, found no meaningful differences in pupil writing scores across the approaches. However, as the approaches represented a significant shift from typical practice, teachers may have needed more support to implement them effectively.